Back to Reality

While still saddened when I stop to think about the events of this week, I am getting back to normal. I don't have a choice. The laundry must still be done, the meals prepared, and yes, the cat and dog hair must be vacuumed from my carpet.

The latest adventures at our house were not written about as I was a bit overwhelmed earlier...Captain Chaos has the bug. The nasty stomach virus that is going around has hit him hard poor little camper!

Saturday, we went to our local YMCA to participate in "Health Kids Day", and got a good workout ourselves. It started well, sunny, and fairly warm, and then, about 2/3 of the way through, the wind kicked up, and I think if it had been cloudy, it would have rapidly hit below freezing with the wind chill. That wind was flat out ARCTIC...yikes! We got home, and Capt was rosy cheeked, and had a runny nose. I thought nothing of it, as I often experience the same thing when its cold and windy outside. However, by dinnertime that night, he was flushed, chapped, flat out dripping like a running faucet, and CRANKY. I dosed him with some Tylenol to stave off a fever, slathered his cheeks with Cortaid, plugged in the vaporizer, elevated the head of his bed (an exercise in futility, but I tried), and tucked him in. He awoke Sunday snottier, but happier, ate normally and played fine all day.

Monday came and he was snottier yet, and it was starting to turn colors...a sure sign of a cold in our house. He began coughing that day, and was sort of off...not really eating (a HUGE sign of not feeling well for him), and just wanted to sit and snuggle (again, HUGE sign...). We stayed home, and Tuesday saw us at home, no fever, just snotty and droopy. Tuesday night, he coughed so hard he made himself sick. Twice. In about 20 minutes times. I had taken him out of the tub (he was literally coated in it, soaked through his pjs and everything), and changed his sheets, and gotten him all warm and snuggly again, and about 5 minutes after I put him down again, he threw up again. All over the bed, himself, and the freshly cleaned carpet. Note to self: DON'T pay to have the kids' carpet cleaned professionally again until AFTER potty training is over...just in case. I cleaned up as best I could at 10pm, bathed him, fresh sheets, fresh jammies, showered (there's no way to calm a sick child without picking up some of the shrapnel), and started a load a laundry. I had to take all the clothing and bedding outside, shake out the chunks (sorry if you have a delicate stomach), and then ran everything through a full wash cycle with just cold water and vinegar. Had to kill any germs and get rid of the odor somehow...Wednesday, I thought we'd be ok, as he ate breakfast, and was playing happily when the Godfather arrived to watch him while BB and I attended the funeral. When we got home, my Dad told me that all he'd done was sit on the couch and sniffle while they read books. He didn't actually sleep...so...I fed him some lunch, and then took him upstairs to change his diaper, thinking it was a normal dirty diaper...much to my surprise and dismay, there was no substance to ANYTHING in the diaper...to the extreme that he actually dripped all the way up the freshly cleaned stairs, and down the freshly cleaned hallway...and all over his bed, all over his clothes, all over me. SO...I threw him in the tub, changed the sheets, took the whole mess downstairs and threw it onto the deck, got him settled for a nap, showered and changed, and did yet another 2 washes of his bedding and clothes...SIGH. The rest of Wednesday and all day yesterday was spent armed with white towels (they can be bleached), and a trash bag...as of bedtime last night, we had only one diaper that was NOT inclusive of what was supposed to be solid waste...and that was the last one before bed.

He slept all night, and has just awakened. I shall now go and see if we are through what the doctors are saying is the nastiest bout of non-flu they've seen in a while...and someday, my poor chapped hands will recover and be soft again...right????